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Please help ....not able to breast feed properly

Hi
My 2 month old baby is nowadays not at all interested in breast feeding. She cries a lot when I took her for feeding . We started giving her formula once a day when she was just 1 week old...now we giving her four times a day ..she is more on bottle ..I tried to pump and gave her breast milk...I also started my periods so I think my milk supply is also getting low .in one pumping session I could only make 100 ml ( nearly 3 ounces ) .. Is this sign of low milk supply ??? I really want to feed my baby but she is more on formulas ..I gave all hope that whether she will be again more on breast milk rather than formula ??? Please suggest me what to do .

Re: Please help ....not able to breast feed properly

I have been breast feeding my son sucessfully for 10 months now. I can tell you that your milk supply adjusts to the frequency of pumps or feedings. The more you pump or nurse, the more your milk will come in. If your baby will take your breasts, you will need to nurse her as often as you can to get your supply up. Trust me you'll know when you've succeeded, because they will leak a lot. And you will begin to feel the milk flowing in both breasts during a nursing session. I've experimented a little with pumping but decided not to bother with it. When my baby was that young, I was only able to get 3 ounces if he slept 5 hours or more. That didn't happen often, lol. You cannot base your supply on what you pump. I know this must sound confusing. Once your breasts are nursing or pumping on a regular basis, you will only be able to get a large amount pumped for a bottle if you have not pumped or nursed for a long time. Example, If you pump first thing in the morning... your breasts have had time to fill up. Otherwise... you will only pump small amounts, an ounce or two at a time. On another note, you need to understand that breastmilk digests much quicker than formula. Meaning baby will be hungry sooner after breastmilk. And will need to be fed more frequently if you are giving her breastmilk. You may also want to have your breastmilk tested at a doctor's visit. It is possible your milk does not have the sufficient nutrients baby needs and could be why she was crying and refusing. If this is so, you may need to put that idea away and stick with formula. I hope this helps!

Re: Please help ....not able to breast feed properly

3 ounces is a normal amount to pump for one pumping session, becasue 3 ounces would be a normal feeding session for a two month old.

It is very likely that the early bottle use has caused your baby to become used to the bottle, which would explain fussiness at the breast. It is also possible that the supplementing has reduced your milk production. Both can be turned around, but I am curious why the formula supplements were started in the first place and then increased-was baby not gaining? How is babies weight gain now? How many times a day does baby nurse? How many times a day do you pump? How much each day is baby getting from bottles-how much expressed milk, how much formula?

You may also want to have your breastmilk tested at a doctor's visit. It is possible your milk does not have the sufficient nutrients baby needs and could be why she was crying and refusing. If this is so, you may need to put that idea away and stick with formula. I hope this helps!

Tresa2steppin, your suggestions for how to build milk production are very helpful. I am curious where this suggestion about having breastmilk tested for nutritional content comes from. This is not typically an issue with breastmilk as far a I am aware. Can you direct me to the source of this? Thanks.

Re: Please help ....not able to breast feed properly

Supply=demand. Take a nursing vacation. Hang out all day with baby skin to skin. Stock up movies, books, snacks, and drinks by your bed or couch and NURSE. I agree with meg that its a preference for bottles so there will be fussing.

Re: Please help ....not able to breast feed properly

Thank you all for reply. My baby was gaining weight properly . She gained 5 pounds by now . The reason why we increased formula was she was hungry after every feeding..she used to cry so we thought that she needs more to eat ..this how we increased the formula . i had my delivery by c-section so initially i used to have lot of trouble while breastfeeding ,this is also one of the reason amount of formula increased .The baby nurse like 7-6 times now on breastfeeding. I pump 3 times a day . We are giving her 2oz of formula 4 times a day . One more thing which I want to bring into notice is that she is just nursing for 5-10 mins then starts crying I try to clam down her and then start again . I really want to switch to on BF completely but don't know whether its possible or not . I m really feeling bad that I am unable to nurse her properly.

Re: Please help ....not able to breast feed properly

First, I suggest stop worrying about breastfeeding "properly." If any mother has ever in the history of the world figured out how to do everything 'properly' I would be very surprised. We all are trying to figure this out as we go. You are doing really great. Your baby is nursing and getting your milk. This is wonderful! If you want to move to exclusive breastfeeding, that is very possible, and will certainly make life easier for everyone. But even if it never happens, you are still breastfeeding your baby.

So it sounds like supplements were perhaps not ever needed, or were only needed for a short time early on, but were increased as so often happens in such situations, due to baby's behavior.
Please be assured that when a healthy, normally gaining baby fusses after nursing it means they either want to nurse some more (normal for young infants to want to nurse almost constantly) or they need some other comforting method. It does not mean you have low milk supply or there is anything wrong with your milk and it does not mean baby needs anything in a bottle.

Now, it is possible that your supply has been impacted at this point, becaue you have been supplementing. But it’s hard to say for sure! Even if it has, the key for increasing it is to increase milk removal frequency.

8 ounces of formula a day would be about one third of an average daily intake for a breastfed baby, which is approximately 30 ounces per day. So you do not have far to go for weaning off the formula supplements.

Are you also giving your baby your breastmilk that you pump? How much of that a day do you pump, and does baby get?

When weaning off supplements it is recommended that mom work with a breastfeeding friendly pediatrician and/or a board certified lactation consultant. (IBCLC.) So find someone locally to help you.
meanwhile,
1) I suggest increase the frequency of nursing sessions. Shoot for 10 a day. Keep up the pumping you are doing already just for now.
2)Try supplementing an ounce or so prior to baby nursing, letting baby finish at the breast. This will help milk production as well as letting baby “finish at the breast’ which helps baby equate the breast with comfort and feeling satisfied, as well as helping milk production.
3)Consider taking a galactagogue.
4)When you are ready and have the support of a doctor or IBCLC, start eliminating the formula-see the kellymom article or talk to your hcp on how to do this most safely. Maybe eliminate an ounce of formula supplement every couple of days(?)
Watch weight gain closely, maybe get a weight check every week for now. Remember weight gain normally varies but if it flattens out or baby loses weight, that could indicate you are weaning off the supplements too quickly.
After you are off teh formula and all is going well, it will be pretty simple to cut back on pumping and the breast milk bottles too.